BURLINGTON, ON–(Marketwired – Jul 12, 2017) – Memex Inc. (“MEMEX” or the “Company”) (TSX VENTURE: OEE) announced it has received a purchase order from SEW-EURODRIVE for $500 thousand (approx.) in a plant-wide deployment of MERLIN Tempus Enterprise Edition (EE) and MERLIN DNC software.

SEW-EURODRIVE, the Lyman, South Carolina-based producer of gearmotors and drive-based automation solutions, will install MEMEX’s machine-monitoring solutions onto most of the factory equipment housed in its 250,000 square-foot manufacturing facility.

“SEW-EURODRIVE researched very carefully for the right supplier of automated machine monitoring solutions and determined that MEMEX’s MERLIN was best able to capture the quality of data we were looking for,” said Jess Galloway, SEW-EURODRIVE’s Manufacturing Superintendent. Chuck Chandler, Plant Manager, added, “It is important for a world class manufacturing facility to have visibility of all operations and the use of these advanced data-driven manufacturing techniques extends our competitive edge.”

“We’re proud that SEW-EURODRIVE selected MEMEX after a thorough and careful competitive evaluation process,” said MEMEX President and CEO David McPhail. “SEW-EURODRIVE started with a MERLIN pilot, and has now committed to a full-plant roll-out of MERLIN Tempus EE and MERLIN DNC. This says a lot about how much value SEW-EURODRIVE places in the adoption of a data-driven manufacturing approach and in the MEMEX solution, in particular. We’re excited to work with SEW-EURODRIVE and are looking forward to helping this industry-leading manufacturer use data-driven manufacturing to achieve its business productivity and efficiency goals.”

MERLIN DNC is a software plug-in to the MERLIN platform. It offers a browser-based interface that connects legacy CNC tools to modern networks, and allows CNC programs and data to be easily transferred.

About SEW-EURODRIVESEW-EURODRIVE is a world leader in drive technology and a pioneer in drive-based automation. Since introducing the gearmotor in 1931, the company has had a history of innovations, including the first variable speed gearmotor, early electronic drives, and the first motor with energy-efficient copper rotors. Over the last seven years, the company’s Lyman, South Carolina plant has more than doubled its manufacturing capacity to meet growing customer demand.

About MEMEXMemex Inc. was founded with a vision to improve the way automated machinery and production equipment work and connect on the factory floor. Since then MEMEX has proved itself a pioneer in IIoT time and again. The company is committed to its mission of “successfully transforming factories of today into factories of the future” and envisions converting every machine into a node on the corporate network, creating visibility from shop-floor-to-top-floor. MEMEX is the developer of MERLIN, an award-winning IIoT technology platform that delivers tangible increases in manufacturing productivity in Real Time. MEMEX’s software and hardware IIoT solution enable customers to achieve tangible IIoT-centric business outcomes. The MERLIN software suite and connectivity products have enabled manufacturers to achieve upwards of a 50% increase in productivity and a 20%-plus increase in profit, on average. Additionally, customers have secured payback in less than four months, which equates to an Internal Rate of Return greater than 300 per cent. For more information, please visit: www.MemexOEE.com

David McPhail in conversation with James D. Sawyer – Editor Emeritus, Advanced Manufacturing

A manufacturing concern can get the greatest return on its investment by optimizing its overall equipment effectiveness, or OEE. In this podcast hosted for SME, MEMEX CEO David McPhail details the relationship between OEE and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Data, he explains, is what drives this relationship. Data-driven manufacturing consists of keeping track of everything that happens on the shop floor, and software, including MEMEX’s MERLIN Tempus solution, helps monitor and manage that data.

SANTA CLARA, California, Jan. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Based on its recent analysis of the global machine monitoring systems market, Frost & Sullivan has recognized MEMEX Inc. with the 2016 Global Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Leadership. With this award, MEMEX receives worldwide acclaim for its turnkey machine monitoring and automation solutions, especially its flagship product, MERLIN, a next generation scalable IIoT communication platform. The company continuously improves its products to stay relevant to a cross section of customers from the aerospace, automotive, and advanced industrial sectors. It further sets itself apart with its outstanding technical service, support, training, and software developm

By offering true shop floor to top floor communication and visibility at plant- and enterprise-level along with enhanced data collection, and tailored reporting capabilities, MERLIN presents specific data results that customers need to make strategic decisions reducing their overall capital expenditure. The MERLIN platform connects the shop floor with the top floor of any manufacturing facility by leveraging the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) Mega Trend in its overall concept and design. Acknowledging the importance of user friendliness, MEMEX designed the system in a way that the installed communications base and open machine integration software collects and houses all machinery data in a single, easy-to-access control panel and displays the data on an interactive dashboard. Furthermore, MERLIN helps customers track and understand various performance metrics displayed on its system dashboard and performance trend charts.

“One of the distinguishing features of MERLIN is its operator portal, with its ability to perform machine-related operator inputs through a Microsoft Windows-based application,” said Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst, Rohit Karthikeyan. “This parameter-driven software allows operators to quickly tailor the operator portal to display the information they need on their personal devices. It makes the machine information accessible while still channeling operator information inputs, commands, and notices through the plant’s communication platform.”

MERLIN MTC-One, a circuit board hardware that connects machines to a network with multiple analog and digital inputs

MEMEX has taken innovation a step further by including product features such as the HTML-based widgets in the dashboard presentation layers of MERLIN. These widgets permit customers to smoothly tailor their data reporting to show only specific and relevant machine performance information to production teams. Combined, these features result in a highly scalable data reporting solution.

“MEMEX looks to make ‘cross-industry machine connections’ by providing machine and process monitoring, OEE, and communications functionalities,” noted Karthikeyan. “No other machine monitoring system offers such a solution, and it helped MEMEX achieve its mission of measuring manufacturing excellence.”

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that develops a product with innovative features and functionality that is gaining rapid acceptance in the market. The award recognizes the solution quality and the customer value enhancements it enables.

MEMEX Inc., the developer of MERLIN, an award winning IIoT technology platform that delivers tangible increases in manufacturing productivity in Real-Time, is the global leader in machine to machine connectivity solutions. Committed to its mission of “Successfully transforming factories of today into factories of the future” and encouraged by the accelerating adoption and success of MERLIN, MEMEX is relentlessly pursuing the development of increasingly innovative solutions suitable in the IIoT era. MEMEX envisions converting every machine into a node on the corporate network, thereby, creating visibility from shop-floor-to-top-floor. MEMEX, with its deep commitment towards machine connectivity, offers solutions that are focused on finding hidden capacity by measuring and managing Real-Time data. This empowers MEMEX’s customers to effectively quantify and manage OEE, reduce costs and incorporate strategies for continuous lean improvement. For more information, please visit:www.MemexOEE.com

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today’s market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Contact us: Start the discussion.

BURLINGTON, ON–(Marketwired – Sep 14, 2016) – Memex Inc.(“MEMEX”) (TSX VENTURE:OEE) announced today it will be unveiling and demonstrating two new modules to the MERLIN open platform — MERLIN Financial Overall Equipment Effectiveness (FOEE) and MERLIN DNC. MEMEX is also introducing MERLIN Continuous Improvement Professional Services (CI-PS) at the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) in Chicago.

It is a fact that most manufacturers are totally in the dark in terms of knowing in real-time if they are making or losing money on a given machine tool, shift or plant. Now with the introduction of MERLIN FOEE, we address this critical issue by combining OEE with financials.

Bob Hansen, long time manufacturing consultant and author of OVERALL Equipment “Effectiveness – A Powerful Maintenance/Production Tool For Increased Profits”, stated, “while OEE is an excellent metric, the truth is OEE tells you nothing about your profitability or more important, your potential profitability and this why I created Financial Overall Equipment Effectiveness. MERLIN FOEE is a new tool for leadership teams to visualize hourly profit contribution by product on constraint machines versus world class performance results. Key components of FOEE information can improve prioritization of product /machine scheduling, re-order Continuous Improvement projects, and reset sales and marketing strategies for better cash flow and higher profits. What is the value of an accelerating competitive advantage such as FOEE? Priceless.”

John Rattray, VP of Sales for MEMEX, stated, “FOEE is a game-changer because it provides the ability to visualize real-time financial profit contribution on a per machine/product basis giving management the ability to direct teams with the information to drive profitable scheduling and machine utilization.”

David McPhail, President and CEO for MEMEX, stated, “We acquired the rights to FOEE because we knew that this will completely change analytics for manufacturing. Imagine knowing in real-time if you are making or losing money at any given standalone machine tool or at any one of your plants. What was only a dream in manufacturing, is now a reality with MERLIN FOEE.”

The Direct/Distributed Numerical Control (DNC) market has been flat in terms of growth. With the full embrace of platforms such as MEMEX’s MERLIN this has caused countless manufacturing plants and shops to re-evaluate their DNC solutions. MEMEX made a strategic decision to purchase Dostek in 2015 because of their exceptional reputation in the industry.

Doug Struthers, MEMEX DNC Architect, stated, “After 30 years at Dostek, I joined MEMEX for one primary reason — to create the most comprehensive, flexible, easy to use and easy to troubleshoot DNC software using the MERLIN platform. This was my opportunity to take my many decades of DNC experience to create the absolute best DNC software. MERLIN DNC will absolutely cause manufacturing to rethink their entire DNC strategy.”

The key high-level steps for successful implementation of Management Execution Systems (MES) such as MERLIN Tempus are measure, monitor and manage. Nigel Southway, international consultant, coach for Operational Continuous Improvement & LEAN Thinking and author of CYCLE TIME MANAGEMENT… Fast Track to Productivity Improvement, stated, “we have developed the MERLIN Continuous Improvement Professional Services (CI-PS) program to couple the power of the MERLIN Tempus platform with a comprehensive implementation process that enables organizations to embrace the CI culture. Utilizing time-tested, integrated templates, reporting methodology and advanced problem solving tools the MERLIN CI roadmap drives productivity improvement to achieve benchmark operating effectiveness.”

About MEMEX:
MEMEX, the developer of MERLIN, an award winning IIoT technology platform that delivers tangible increases in manufacturing productivity in Real-Time, is the global leader in machine to machine connectivity solutions. Committed to its mission of “Successfully transforming factories of today into factories of the future” and encouraged by the accelerating adoption and success of MERLIN, MEMEX is relentlessly pursuing the development of increasingly innovative solutions suitable in the IIoT era. MEMEX envisions converting every machine into a node on the corporate networks, thereby, creating visibility from shop-floor-to-top-floor. MEMEX, with its deep commitment towards machine connectivity, offers solutions that are focused on finding hidden capacity by measuring and managing Real-Time data. This empowers MEMEX’s customers to effectively quantify and manage OEE, reduce costs and incorporate strategies for continuous lean improvement.

BURLINGTON, ON–(Marketwired – Aug 3, 2016) – Memex Inc. (“MEMEX”) (TSX VENTURE:OEE) announced today it has received several new orders for its MERLIN Enterprise Edition platform for manufacturing. Pioneer Products Inc. will be installing MERLIN in an 11 Machine initial phase, and both TECT Corp. and Aerofit, LLC., already MEMEX customers seeing success with MERLIN, have extended their adoption with follow-on orders for their facilities.

“The business risk in installing MERLIN is so small and the benefits are so big that it is almost a no loss business decision,” says Frank V. Bailey, COO, Pioneer Products, as he explains one of the key factors that determined the Pioneer Products’s decision to install MERLIN.

“Recognition of the tremendous benefits offered by MERLIN by high quality precision and aerospace manufacturers along with continuous increasing adoption by existing MEMEX clients is a testament of how valuable MERLIN is to the manufacturing sector,” says John Rattray, Vice-President Sales and Marketing at MEMEX Inc. “Accurate data provided by MERLIN enables business to harness the true power of Data-Driven Manufacturing along with achieving positive tangible business outcomes in terms of productivity, profits and payback.”

About Pioneer Products Inc.:
Pioneer Products is a precision CNC machine shop with machining, grinding, plating, heat treating and engineering support for all manufacturing needs. Their 112,000 square-foot manufacturing and office facility features multi-functional machining capabilities with about 100 machines.

About TECT Corp.:
With twelve facilities in the U.S., and with more than 65 years of aerospace experience, TECT Corp. manufactures complex aerostructure components, machined components, parts and complex assemblies from the full spectrum of traditional and aerospace alloys servicing commercial and military aircraft.

About Aerofit, LLC.:
Aerofit, LLC. designs and manufactures high and low pressure fluid fittings and fitting systems for the aerospace, marine, nuclear and other critical industries. Their capabilities span the entire business and production cycle, from feasibility studies to qualification testing and post-manufacturing functional testing.

About MEMEX:
MEMEX, the developer of MERLIN, an award winning IIoT technology platform that delivers tangible increases in manufacturing productivity in Real-Time, is the global leader in machine to machine connectivity solutions. Committed to its mission of “Successfully transforming factories of today into factories of the future” and encouraged by the accelerating adoption and success of MERLIN, MEMEX is relentlessly pursuing the development of increasingly innovative solutions suitable in the IIoT era. MEMEX envisions converting every machine into a node on the corporate network, thereby, creating visibility from shop-floor-to-top-floor. MEMEX, with its deep commitment towards machine connectivity, offers solutions that are focused on finding hidden capacity by measuring and managing Real-Time data. This empowers MEMEX’s customers to effectively quantify and manage OEE, reduce costs and incorporate strategies for continuous lean improvement.

David McPhail will be presenting at OptiSaw West. OptiSaw is a time-effective and affordable learning and networking opportunity for those driving the future of sawmilling in your operation. The focus is on the future of optimization and automation in our industry, including challenges and opportunities on the cutting edge of this side of the industry.

SARASOTA, FL–(Marketwired – May 13, 2016) – MEMEX Inc. (TSX VENTURE: OEE) is proud to announce that Sun Hydraulics Corp. (NASDAQ: SNHY) has issued a Purchase Order for an additional 89 of their machines to be equipped with MERLIN MES Enterprise Edition software.

Sun Hydraulics arrived at this decision after experiencing the optimization opportunities offered by MERLIN during a pilot in which MERLIN was installed on 11 of their machines. The 100 machine multi-plant roll-out is phase 1 of a larger IIoT initiative to ensure efficiency and profitability of operations at Sun Hydraulics Corp.

“Recognition of the value that MERLIN creates by industry leaders like Sun Hydraulics Corp. pushes MEMEX towards developing more innovative solutions that successfully transform factories of today into factories of the future,” says David McPhail, CEO MEMEX.

About Sun Hydraulics Corp.

Sun Hydraulics is a leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance screw-in hydraulic cartridge valves and manifolds that control force, speed and motion as integral components in fluid power systems.

From its inception in 1970 and a public company since 1997, Sun sells its products globally, primarily through independent distributors, to diverse markets of mobile and industrial equipment and machinery manufacturers. Sun has been committed to being the leader in its field. They offer products that advance customers’ businesses, improving the safety and performance of the machinery in which they are used.

About MEMEX Inc.

MEMEX Inc., the developer of MERLIN, an award winning IIoT technology platform that delivers tangible increases in manufacturing productivity in Real-Time, is the global leader in machine to machine connectivity solutions. Committed to its mission of “Successfully transforming factories of today into factories of the future” and encouraged by the rapid adoption and success of MERLIN, MEMEX is relentlessly pursuing the development of increasingly innovative solutions suitable in the IIoT era. MEMEX envisions converting every machine into a node on the corporate network, thereby, creating visibility from shop-floor-to-top-floor. MEMEX, with its deep commitment towards machine connectivity, offers solutions that are focused on finding hidden capacity by measuring and managing Real-Time data. This empowers MEMEX’s customers to effectively quantify and manage OEE, reduce costs and incorporate strategies for continuous lean improvement.

A trio of Mazak, Memex and Cisco is beginning to sell SmartBox, a device meant to securely manage manufacturing data—information on axes, spindles, temperatures, cutting times, downtimes and part counts, for starters—culled from machines that have been laboring in a sort of silence for decades. At the same time, a pairing of Forcam and Wago plans to release a similar device it calls the PFC100 Industrial MTConnect device before July.

SmartBox uses I/O links to connect machines and produces MTConnect code in real time. It can use an adapter board from Memex and must be connected to a Cisco router, John Rattray, VP of sales and marketing at Memex, said in an interview with Smart Manufacturing magazine at the MC2 conference in Dallas. It can also use Memex’s factory- and machine-shop-floor-monitoring software, Merlin, to map existing signals and analyze and correlate the data so shops and plants can use it to improve productions.

Companies in the aerospace, defense and medical industries welcome the Cisco router requirement because it assuages their network security concerns, he added.

“We’re talking about IP connections in terms of Ethernet connections,” Rattray said. “You don’t need to have all the security in there to make the connection work. However, one customer of ours, DP Tool in New York, had experienced a situation where a guy who was maintaining a machine put in a USB stick into it and a virus on this USB stick spread to the company’s manufacturing network and whole admin network. It cost the company an enormous amount of effort and grief to get that fixed. You can run without security switches. But smart manufacturers are recognizing we need to secure and lock down our shop floor networks.”

The SmartBox has a “level three” managed switch that will shut the device down automatically if a USB stick comes its way or someone unplugs a particular Ethernet connection, Rattray added.

The emerging device from Forcam and Wago has a combined MTConnect adapter and agent inside the device, as well as a built-in security firewall for cybersecurity, Forcam USA Inc. CEO Mohamed Abuali said. He demonstrated a simulation model at MC2, saying it cost less than the trio’s device.

The Forcam/Wago product will cost less than $1,000, he said. And the Mazak/Memex/Cisco device will cost $4,000 on the low end but could be used on four machines, Mazak President Brian Papke said.

Companies using legacy CNCs will soon be able to choose between bolting their new data-retrieving device together with a Cisco network router or a “quicker solution that can connect to any network,” Abuali said. “The alternative [to these two options] is you have to retrofit the machine and upgrade the controller, which can cost thousands of dollars. In many cases, you cannot even retrofit.”

Both devices are intended to help manufacturers around the world connect their machines securely to a network. About 14.5 million machines still lack connectivity, Rattray said.

Of course, the idea is to then analyze the data to make the best decisions possible about manufacturing and machining processes. And some of those decisions can be made without human involvement, to be sure: “For instance, if a temperature sensor starts to rise above a threshold limit, the machine can send an alert and notify people before it fails,” he added.

Merlin lets companies “take data and make it manageable,” said Papke, who serves on the board for MTConnect. Otherwise, companies end up with “digital exhaust.”

Memex Chief Technology Officer Dave Edstrom is “very pleased to see more of these type boxes come out—because, as the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all ships,” he said.

But he couldn’t stop himself from making a quick comparison with the offering from Forcam/Wago: “The integration of what Mazak is doing with the SmartBox, with Memex and Cisco—making it easier to connect—will resonate very well with manufacturing. You don’t have to sell someone on Memex’s ability to connect anything. And you don’t have to sell anyone on Cisco’s ability to network a lot of devices together and do it securely. So that’s why we think SmartBox is a game-changer.”

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About Memex

MEMEX, with its visionary attitude, has been on the leading-edge of the convergence of the industry trends in Computing Power, Connectivity of Machines, Industry Standards, Advanced Software Technology, and Manufacturing Domain Expertise. MEMEX is the developer of MERLIN, an award winning IIoT technology platform that delivers tangible increases in manufacturing productivity in real-time.